HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



15 



arrival of a ftrange people, with beards, and the prints 

 of human feet imprelfed upon fome ftones, which are 

 fuppofed to be the footfteps of the apoftle St. Tho- 

 mas (m). We never could reconcile ourfelves to this 

 opinion ; but the examination of fuch monuments and 

 remains, would require a work of a very different kind 

 from that which we have undertaken. 



Tlaloc, otherwife Tlalocateuclli (mafter 0 f paradife), 

 was the god of water. They called him fertilizer of the 

 earth, and prote&or of their temporal goods. They be- 

 lieved he refided upon the higheft mountains, where the 

 clouds are generally formed, fuch as thofe of Tlaloc, 

 Tlafcala, and Toluca ; whither they often went to im- 

 plore his protection. 



The native hiftorians relate, that the Acolhuas having 

 arrived in that country in the time of Xolotl, the firft 

 Chechemecan king, found at the top of the mountain of 

 Tlaloc, an image of that god, made of a white and very 

 light ftone, in the ftiape of a man fitting upon a fquare 

 ftone, with a velfel before him, in which was fome elaftic 

 gum, and a variety of feeds. This was their yearly of- 

 fering, by way of rendering up their thanks after having 

 had a favourable harveft. That image was reckoned 

 the oldeft in that country ; for it had been placed upon 

 that hill by the ancient Toltecas, and remained till the 

 end of the XVth or beginning of the XVIth century, 

 when Nezahualpilli, king of Acolhuacan, in order to 

 gain the favour of his fubjects, carried it away, and 

 placed another in its ftead, of a very hard black ftone. 



The 



(m) Not only the marks of human feet have been found printed or rather cut 

 out in ftones, but thofe likewife of animals have been found, without our being 

 able to form any conjecture of the purpqfe had in view by thofe who have taken 

 the trouble to cut them. 



